While the aging population is an issue, I believe that the bigger issue is population declination. There aren't any incentives at all to have children in Japan whether it's maternal benefits, social services, etc. Also, I'd like to note that once this young generation becomes old, there will simply be no people to look after them. For a technologically advanced and one of the richest countries out there, it is surprising that Japan is one of the unhappiest nations out there. Maybe due to to the overwhelming overtime stress, society expectations, low wages. I think it mostly falls on the Japan government and more policies / incentives must be implemented to quickly rectify the issue. Once again thank you Asian Boss for the quality content. You never fail to deliver. Very informative
Devin Stambolziovski sorry but I disagree with you. Sure mentality is part of the issue, but is not a fundamental reasoning. I'm sure there are many people wanting to raise children of their own in Japan, but I think it has more to do with one person's financial situation. When people are being overworked for slave wages and are denied any social services, do you really think these people would have children even if they wanted to? Also, I have heard people have the risk of losing their jobs even if they take a short time off to be with family. I am in Canada and the government is taking a very different approach to this matter. A mother can expect to get around 9 months of paid leave just to be with her new born child while being offered social services. In addition, one could expect a pay cheque every month to ease off the financial burden of families just to ensure that children are being well fed and have access to all basic needs. Mentality is only a fraction of the problem and that's how I feel.
Declining population is good for the environment. The Earth is overpopulated and it's not sustainable in the long run, so I think it's great to see a declining trend in population sizes in many first world countries. The economic issues are something to be vary of though.
Tyynymyy japan is very environmentally conscious. Why dont you tell it to those countries that produce the largest amount of chemicals and consume irresponsibly too much
There is more elderly voters for politicans. Some younger people can't even vote yet. So its not benifical to politician's career to help young people.
Aging is a major problem to Japan, but it seems to me that many of their senior citizens are still working. Japanese live very long life, and their having healthy diet is one of the reasons why they are still able to work even when they get really old.
At first I thought that "Cooking with Dog" might have been an anime (that I'd never heard of). But no, it's apparently some kind of live-action cooking show on RUclips. But the "Rem" character is from an anime, and maybe that's all it took to set off vwgenera? The world is full of people who will clutch at any straw to talk about the things _they_ think are important, whether or not it's on topic.
When most of the policies are more beneficial towards elderly, younger generation can't help but to focus on their career first instead of planning to have a family in their 20-30s and i think that is one of the reason why they have this kind of problem.
I think making jobs more parent friendly might increase their birth rate. Lower the working hours keeping the salary same, having maternity and paternity benefits and good childcare facilities will make it attractive for salaried people to have more children. In some European countries, if you have three kids, government will pay half the money for buying a house. Some people might argue that encouraging women to work might reduce the number of children. But Japan is the country where women have to choose between children and job. And those who choose children can have only as many as one salary can afford. If they don't have to choose, the women who don't want to have children may start having them. And the financial independence means that if the marriage goes south, they can get out and still take care of the kids while on a job.
I see one big global issue: On the one hand we have the super rich industrial countries suffering from aging, mass immigration and a general unhealthy lifestyle (depression, social anxiety, burnout, stress etc.) and on the other the second and third world countries with mostly young people, suffering from poverty, pollution and crime...the rich get richer and the poor get poorer...and btw: replacing the young people by immigrants and robots sounds to me like a really strange kind of future (which won't be able to sustain any kind of cultural aspects in the long term anyway) sometimes I ask myself where this weird, confusing world situation should lead us to...
This has been true for a very long time... In industrialized countries, you're encouraged to have fewer children so that they have better lives... Children are moneysucks in the developed world. Also, developed countries have better access to abortion, birth control, etc... Women in the first world have to feel economically stable to have children. That's why more children in the US are born into the working class or poverty than the middle class - the middle class is quite unstable in the US. Anyway, every life comes with difficulties. In the first world, we have it pretty easy, though.
dude the poor is not getting poorer, you survive way longer nowadays and that's like the big thing *western culture* has brought on these nations. you no longer get wiped out by disease, and malaria rates are falling globally by 29% . We are truly living through a time that is unprecedentedly safe and connected that individuals frankly are just along for the ride, but no-one is in control and anything can happen. Novelty will continue to be a property of development and chaos will turn into order, and order will turn into chaos - and so, the cycle continues... Most likely, at one point in time humans will look back upon this time and think about the milestone-age in history where all became one - and technology created itself through the architecture of the universe, inevitably.
@FVR and @Anonymous Panacea the flaw of right wing anti immigrates stance in places like the US is that in itself it doesn't make sense. The US is made of immigrates in the first place. So saying "replacing young people with immigrants is retarded" wouldn't make sense because the "young people" ancestors where immigrates that did that very thing. So if the US did what your suggesting Anonymous Panacea the only Americans would be would be native Americans. So apparently it's not "retarded" it's how America was created, and devolved in the first place. ------- @Anonymous Panaceathe second half of your post is pseudo science. In especially the last few sentence. there no corration with IQ and birth rates you literally just made that up. And your statement making more is false, the more developed the nation less children, in a lot of cases with more women enter the work force the further delayed parent hood. It some countries especially Japan there over worked culture with too little personal time. In The US people find more opportunities to do both. But young people in Japan become way more focus on furthering their career then family and etc. In general the collective culture of Japan cooperate culture is nothing like US and Europe. The less growth is economically bad, Japan in general have a young labor shortage. The issue what they are highlighting in the video as the population become older the elderly would have to work longer instead of retire. And not only that when they do retire the tax base "young workers" would decrease. It create a issue their not enough younger people to even take care of the older. Ironically the US doesn't have this problem because of immigration. The US has a steady growth rate. immigrates become Americans and this cycle repeats as it always has.
It's not that they don't want babies, it''s that they already struggle to survive themselves, so adding another mouth to feed in their family it's having a harder life and for some people, they can't afford it.
I heard about the aging population in japan before but I'm surprised by the state of the relationship between the young and the elderly, that seems to be an even bigger problem.
even if it opens as a country, it is then up to the states i guess. If everyone wants to move to big cities only like tokyo, thats just increasing human traffic to another level
Then it won't really be Japan anymore will it? Japan isn't a modern made up nation of immigrants like Canada or the US. It has thousands of years of history and a distinct culture and identity.
@@nutyyyy Not necessarily. Many children of immigrants into European countries certainly identify with their new home and have almost completely embraced the culture. The question is how easily can you make the immigrants embrace the local culture? Can you make the local populace accepting of these new immigrants and not treat them as "other"? Both sides need to be willing. Assimilation is a two way street. People wont assimilate if the people they're trying to assimilate into tells them: "No you cant be one of us, even if you were born here. Because you look funny".
I noticed mostly young people were interviewed. Most of the young interviewed mentioned there is generational conflict between the young and the old. The young interviewees perceived more policies favor the elderly. A conflict between generations will not help in solving the aging population phenomenon in Japan.
It’s not just needing to have more children, I think these interviews missed an opportunity to talk about immigration as a solution to the problem. Not many young people in Japan but there’s tons in the developing world - basically what USA does to fill gaps in its society. But xenophobic attitudes and cultural preservation may be even harder to overcome than the economic and cultural issues belying the low birth rate...
wouldn't the problem with immigration be that these people need to know Japanese in order to be useful? I think Japan has really opened up to immigration for people with good Japanese knowledge and a useful skill set.
A people ought to have a right to seek the preservation of their culture. Neither Japan, nor any other nation, has an obligation to welcome anyone from any other country at any time. They need to have more children.
Asia's 'developing world' is Indonesia... and China, Korea and Japan are, rightfully so, terrified of islam. It has already invaded Europe and its culture, and destroyed it so. Other developed countries are worried. Maybe Japan doesn't want to end up like the UK and France because of islam and this forced idea of incluisivity.
This is worrisome. With many more seniors, it will be much harder for the young to sustain everyone, especially if they have to work for seniors who are at the point of being unable to work for themselves. I hope they find a solution soon, if there aren't any in mind yet. I may not be Japanese, but I respect them for their technological advancements, intelligence, determination and discipline.
Awesome video,loved it, please ask more questions like this. Also the classic everybody gets asked a question, nobody raises their hand to share their thoughts and looks around hoping someone else will do it, story of my life
my mother retired when she was 65, she stayed healthy until she was 83. from then on my brother and i took care of her for 8 years, taking her to doctors Appointment .getting her medications, and spending evenings watching DVDS perhaps younger people in japan should prepare themselves for these events, we kept mom in her home where she wanted to be,
This is a problem in the US too. The 65-75 year old population is called the baby boomer population named after the boom in child birth after the soldiers came back to the US after WWII. Between the large jump in that age group and modern medicine making everyone live longer it has been discussed many times that the retirement age should be increased or government pension funds (Social security) will run out. This NEEDS to be done or younger generations will not have a fund at all. We are MUCH more capable to work in older years than we were 100 years ago. It shouldn't be a problem but that age group is fighting it very hard, quite selfish of them.
The Libs/Dems? The GOP has been in control for 3/5 terms since Clinton (when the majority of the debt was piled up) so kinda hard to use that argument. It's actually much easier to say that the GOP and their multi-TRILLION dollar wars that DESTABILIZED the middle east are are huge cause. Oh and the GOP crashing the US/World economy helped that debt too. What funny is the debt really isn't THAT big of an issues. As long as it remains somewhat close to our GDP is all that matters. It should always be looked at as a percentage of GDP (which is basically always rising). When getting a mortgage for a house you analyze your debt:income ratio. The same analysis should be done for national debt:GDP. If you look at that we're basically in line with where the majority of the developed world is. If we stopped wasting money on useless wars we would be in much better shape than the rest of the developed world (with a few exceptions).
increasing the pensionable age isnt a tenable solution. SS is paid for through our taxes which would be enough if not for the lack of gainful employment in our current generation. so many people under the age of 30 barely make enough to live on their own. Much less be taxed for SS
No extending it is tenable. I just did. How do you expect a system that was set up to support seniors for 20 years to suddenly support them for 30 years? You can't so you need to extend the retirement age to account for longer lifespans. The baby boomer generation just so happens to be a large bulge in the population. If they can't get gainful employment and SS folds its the fault of the baby boomers as they are the employers right now. I'm 29 and make $85k a year. College debt slowed me down a lot but I'm on my own feet now and will do my best to be ready for retirement WITHOUT any social security. If it happens to be there when I retire I'll be double covered!
well i shouldnt have to point this out but just because youre in a good situation doesnt mean that's how it is for everyone or even a majority. The average individual income is less than half of what you are supposedly making so count yourself lucky and dont be blinded to how things are for a majority of the population. Lets say they did that and the retirement age was increased by 10 years. Thats a pretty substantial amount of jobs that are no longer open for younger people to fill. How is it that your plan works for those people just coming into the workforce? If that was truly a tenable solution then you have to also account for those trying to start a career as well.
I think all of Japan's socio-economic problems are all related to each other. The increasing aging population, population decline and crazy work hours are all connected. While the youth interviewed were pretty harsh in their words, they have a point; all the focus has been on the old geezers who don't understand the sentiments of the youth today. At least the old lady who was interviewed was concerned about the pension of the young people who are supporting the current old population's pension. There needs to be a radical change in the Japanese mindset which probably won't happen due to their "shogannai" mentality.
I believe raising the pensionable age to 70 is not the solution. Incentive to have family like: 80% or higher paid manadatory maternity and paternity leave for no less than 6 months, mandatory limit on extra work hours in office etc would help. Also the should open up more to foreign investement and workers.I love Japan and sad about this ... policy makers need to implement a work al personal time life cultural change making things less havy both for the youth and the elderly.
thank you for your insighful reply. You are right. There is a need for generational shift in power. And the youth have to demand it otherwise no one will give up power on their own and there will not be cultural change. Shortage of workers and professioanals will be heavy to bare on the youth so they should take the time and protest systematically. It is not about disrispecting the elders its about taking control of one's own life isnt it? It's a natural social transition that power shuld pass from the elders to the younger generation .
A major shift in thinking on a nationwide scale would definitely start a change towards new and effecient policies. However, I've noticed recently that Japanese people have a strong aversion/hostility towards change.
This is a problem in the UK too. retirement age by the time I get to 65 will by then be 70. I'd love to be in a position of comfort where money was no issue, but in the field im in ... not so sure. Not a lot of us are procreating, and though this is absolutely the wrong reason to do it, getting married is still set up to receive more advantages than those who remain single. Yet a lot of us are single and living online. It does strike me as odd that the youth in Japan are the least vocal of prior generations though? They, like other millennials and Gen Z have the world at their fingertips - they have so much to be outraged by and we're at a crossroads of change the world over. How come they're so passive?
Alex I think it's to do with the culture as well, it encourages a more passive and polite attitude, which is nice but I wish the young people of Japan would speak up more! They deserve better but only they can change the future
While not as severe, it's a problem in the U.S. as well. Our problem is at least slowed by immigration. I am not saying Japan needs to necessarily open it's boarders up to just anyone, but maybe adopting a system much like ours here could help them. Of course, there would be bumps in the road should Japan start letting in large amounts of foreigners, but policies geared towards assimilation for those who decide to stay perminently should be heavily encouraged. Of course, I am of the opinion that if you move to another country, you should do your best to adopt the behavior if the locals and learn their language. But, to be fair, there is no easy solution for a problem this large
starfox300 Thank you. I work with men and women who are past retirement age. And they all produce more than I do. Everyone works until they tire of working. No one is complaining about it in the U.S. No one.
starfox300 The birthrate in the US has been falling on an annual basis; it is becoming a problem in the eyes of some. I personally don't view a steady decline in the population (globally) because the Earth can't sustain more people.
There is an inbalance between the old and young in the U.S. I have worked with older adults as well, and most don't want to keep working. They simply can't afford to retire. Social Security is not enough to live on. Services for the elderly is also severely strained. It will only get worse over the years, just a bit more slowly than countries like Japan. I have seen several news articles about this being a problem, especially over the last three or four years. One can easily pull up information and statistics on Google. Just because you haven't heard anyone around you complain does not mean the absence of a problem
Of course birthrates have been falling you don't have to have 5-10 kids anymore. People seem to forget most children wouldn't live to be adults so birth rates where high. Our population is still growing just fine. Farmers used to put there kids to work. Its the whole reason summer vacation is a thing. If you look at third world countries people still have 5+ kids and most of them don't make it. We have modern tech sterilization and medicine so we to have to perform the genetic shotgun of having swarms of kids.
Im not japanese but ive learned a lot about this aging population issue since it became international news a couple years ago. I think its partially because of the culture but mainly its an economic issue. I think an effective but likely unpopular solution to the issue would be to have a forced retirement age (lets just say 65 to keep it at what it is) and to lower the overtime threshold to 45 hours while having a hard limit to the amount of hours you can work in a week (65). How I would make it work is the govt would give a standard pension to senior citizens which would be paid for by the taxes of non-seniors. Every 15 years past the age of 20, your taxes for that system would decrease up until your retirement. In addition, families with children dependents would get an additional tax write off per child. This would allow room for the promotion of non-seniors in addition to opening up gainful employment for young people unable to find work. Lowering overtime and limiting over all time would force companies to hire more people further increasing employment. With younger people now able to work and to be promoted to higher paying positions, i dont think there will be so much of an aversion to starting a family and having kids because it would be more affordable. just an idea i had rolling arounding my head. not that it would happen but if i could i would make it that way
AvatarRoku I think this plan could work. Another rising problem is the younger population couldn't keep up yet with the old people population. Which means they have to work their ass off to meet the needs of old generation, since the younger population < older population. Another thing that could work is, setting up more of new work opportunities and investment. E.g. through entertainment industry and commodities like SK did, through tourism like singapore, etc. Then the tax goes to the child support programs. That way the young people could also afford family and contribute to growing population while paying the 15-20 years taxes for older people.
Nice to see a new reporter, great work Chiaki-san. I think that this serious problem that Japan is facing must be taken serious among all Japanese people, old and young. The government also most realize all the problems and issues that people face when having and raising children in Japan, it is not cheap at all. I have spoken to several of my Japanese friends and heard what they have to say about this and everyone tells me about the difficulties and how expensive it is to raise a child in Japan. So I think this is a big factor for many young people today. The balance between work and private life must be addressed as well, because most of my friends in Japan is just working to much, so they have no interest or time for having a family.
I am always curious why do korean people file a report to the bleu house every time there is something. Why are they obsessed with reporting and sueing everything? Maybe a video about something like that? :)
lonely spirit i get that it's pro korean but they still can ask 😁i mean they asked similar questions before like in the video about a movie and the bad subtitle work on it. Then the people signed petitions too.
People who are not people in the country that can afford to worry about Japan. Let's worry about your country before worrying about the country with the world economic third place and a population of 120 million.
We italians understand very well the situation of Japan because our country is the country with the second eldest population in the world (the first is Japan): here we are trying to solve the problem using regular immigrants but a lot of people don't want all these foreigners in our land, therefore the government is promoting policies in favor of the birth rate but for now we have not results and the retirement age is increasing. The difference with Japan is that the italian people are against this solution, also because the young people often can't find work.
I would advise you to read/ watch Hans Rosling and overpopulation. He explains using research data, in simple terms why some countries have high birthrate and how it will change in the future.
telling the truth is racist, got it. there are good muslims of course, but a too big amount of those who are in europe aren't. and the vast majority who go there are men, which is another problem.
thall what you have said in your previous comment isn't "the truth" since you are stating that a religion of approx 1 billion followers is dangerous. "The too big amount" that you are claiming consists less than 2-3% of the Muslim population in Europe. This percentage exists because of some kind of misunderstanding of the religioun, not because it is dangerous.
Is there a legal obligation to retire at 65 (under the current law)/70 (under the incoming law)? If you decide you want to continue working beyond that age, then could you? To me it seems wrong to raise the retirement age so drastically, I would have thought that raising it by one year every two to three years and easing in this new piece of legislation would have been better.
I think you should retire whenever you like if you can afford to do so, and if you cannot then you should retire when you cannot work or are of an age where you should be allowed to enjoy your final years. If you are sick or not going to live a long life as others why should you retire so old? I also think you should have to give a portion of your wealth away in trade for support. It is unfair that people hoard wealth and belonging so young people cannot have a house and such things then they want others to look after them with taxes. (But only if you are of a certain amount of wealth you should have to do this).
Japan's fertility rate is actually much higher than other developed Asian countries. While Japan's TFR is around 1.45, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea all have fertility rates around 1.00 and lower (and they are declining, whereas Japan's fertility rate has been increasing since a low of 1.26 in 2005). Large regions of China (containing 100s of million of people) also have TFRs under 1.00 (Beijing's TFR in 2010 was around 0.71, per Chinese sources + The Economist). I wonder why you guys never interview those countries about this topic?
In a lot of countries, the aging population is strictly due to the terrible economy we have today. I have heard stories from my grandparents how they were able to afford a house while one was a university student and the other was working an entry level low wage job. Now it's extraordinarily hard to survive in comparison, it makes sense that people who can barely take care of themselves make a decision not to have kids. They just can't afford having kids. The best solution in my opinion is to provide benefits for those who have children which will reduce the economic burden of having a child. On a larger scale, I think most countries need to invest more in housing because as it is right now, in a lot of areas it's almost impossible to find a place to live. Housing is so expensive because the demand is much higher than the supply. I have a lot of friends who have to live in a completely different city and commute to their university because there aren't any apartments up for rent in the city they study in. Not to mention the massive debt incurred from getting a university degree...
It's obvious that with low fertility rates the state pension system must end, and seniors who are no longer able to provide for themselves must either be taken care of by their own descendants, live off their accrued wealth, or die - slowly in poverty or by euthanasia. You just can't expect a small minority of productive people to be slaves to the entitled. The system was designed around the expectation of perpetual growth.
Being such a wealthy country the government really should invest in encouraging its citizens to have more children. Giving working mothers paid time off, monthly financial aid for every child, making childcare cheaper, etc. That's the solution. Here in the Netherlands the government chooses to fight the aging population by letting thousands of immigrants in whose values and culture are so different, that they destroy Dutch culture and cause many conflicts. I hope Japan doesn't ever make that mistake
I don't think it's more of an aging issue. I feel like the elderly haven't increased but rather a decrease in young people. Alot of young people (melanials) have decided to not have children
This issue isn't just unique to Japan, although it's most prevalent there. A lot of developed nations have been seeing this trend for a while, including the US, which recently saw the lowest birth rates in 30 years. There's too many barriers to having children - poor maternity leave, social services, etc. Lots of people struggle just to get by, find stable employment, pay rent, and such. I do believe that at some point we have to stabilize human population, considering it's been exponentially increasing for more than half a century. Estimated carrying capacity is 10 billion.
i get that white shirt guy. Many white collar industries are still practicing hierarchy and these old farts are always getting in the way for younger capable people to promote, mostly only when these guys retire. Raising retirement age might in fact drive away the younger generation to find opportunities outside japan.
In countries like China, India, and Japan, a declining birth rate is a good thing. While China's one child policy (now two child policy) is inconsistent with individual freedom in the US, I think it's a good solution for them. Less people means more space, less traffic, more resources, and a host of other wonderful things. Yes, it's tough for a couple generations as the population ages, but you just need to bear with it.
The young need to realize that whatever solution they come up with will likewise apply to them in their old age. If they don't want marriage or family, they too will depend on the kindness of strangers to take care of them when they are also old and feeble. The next generation after them will be very aware of the examples today's young people provide in dealing with this issue, so today's youth are creating their own "karma" in that sense for how they will be treated in the future.
Letting the elderly work as long as they are still physically healthy is fine. But the problem is, it will significantly prevent young people from finding jobs and it therefore results in young people not being able to get married and have kids.
That one guy sounded like he wanted to kick the old peeps to the curb. What some of those interviewed fail to grasp is that all the gov't policies established now will be things they'll have to live with when they're old, like making 70 the retirement age. Learn from the past, i.e. old folks, to plan for the future.
I am almost 70 and stopped working only one year ago. This is quite late for European standards. I am very happy to be able to enjoy my retirement. My pension is small but fortunately I have savings. I am not relying on children as I have none. I admire the Japanese elderly resilience and health. As for the younger generation, they seem to resent the elderly. So something is out of balance…
The problem of the aging society is deeply intertwined with population decline, labor force shortages, and stagnated economic growth. While the Japanese are not so eager to look to foreigners as a new source of labor, the government should start by stabilizing its own domestic workforce. There is an unsustainable number of precarious workers (e.g. freeters) at the moment. My personal opinion is that, if Japan cannot solve the population shortage, then they should not rely on population growth as a driver of economic growth. Instead, they should continue to develop their AI and automation technology.
Well, when 6 out of 10 people around them are above 70, they still seem to hesitate to answer if they notice Japan is an aging country….. OMG ! The depopulation is such a thing in east Asia, Korea Japanese and Chinese……
Kudos for the impressive job, Chiaki ! It's very informative & interesting, however, it would have been better if it was a two part episode in order to look at both sides of the matter: the first part would have the reactions of the concerned elderly workers and the second part would have the reactions of the affected young workers. Like what Asian Boss did with some South Korea - North Korea videos. Many people from other countries, have always perceived the Japanese people to have such strong sense of nationalism & patriotism that is why this topic seems rather out of character in that it appears that the young Japanese workers tend to put their personal interests over the national interest.
5:57 LOL? if young ppl get abusive taxes, the declination will be higher when they elder, so the next young people will get more frustration with higher taxes and then it will go and go and go
Honestly solving the population crisis should be as simple as ensuring social safety net for everyone. The majority of youth want to have spouses, have their own houses and have their own kids. That's not happening when everything is expensive as hell, employers expect maximum work for minimum pay and no tolerance or accommodations for people with disabilities or neurodivergences that would allow them to participate in the workforce. As always, the blame for aging population with low birth rate is the government's weak policies. Japan is not the only place suffering from this.
The problem is probly related to ; When Low birth declining Started Women joining work market Marriage Starts to fall Divorce Increase rate Herbivore Men Also maybe the usual; Qualities men look for in a women Qualities women look for in a men I dont know there but here what i most see women search is the money stability.
Understandable though because those in power won't feel the adverse effects the youth today will suffer. One guy was flat out rude about the elderly (the middle aged guy in the white) but the others had valid concerns.
Aging population is an unavoidable phenomenon not only in Japan but also in other industrial nations. As countermeasures against the decline of workforce, acceptance of immigrants is the most effective way as European countries are doing, but Japanese people stubbornly refuse to accept immigrants from overseas. So, in order to make both ends meet, the Japanese government has to raise the retirement age and reduce the amount of a pension payment. Each Japanese has to acquire skills for survival and healthy body to work for a longer time.
The source of the problem is because of declining birth rate. But I understand japanese people feeling. There's a lot of reasons why they don't want to have a child. Some of the reasons is the long working hour, expensive price, etc. I have watched an interview of japanese couple,they are married but decide not to have a child. They said the reason is because both of them get home from work around 10 pm so there's no way they could care for a children. I think japanese work culture have to change, office workers in japan are expected to work overtime everyday. The couldn't care for their family if they work overtime everyday. I even have a japanese acquaintance that say that he is married with his work. While we that live in other country "work so we could live" japanese are " live to work". Not only that the live expenses also getting more expensive, they can't afford to have a child. And with this new regulation that increase the pension age it will be even tougher. The young people can't get promoted, job vacancy that could be filled with young workers is not available because the company still maintain their old workers. How could young people make a child while they couldn't get a job or couldn't get promoted? If they couldn't get a job or get promoted they couldn't make money to raise children. This things resulted in declining of birth rate after that of course resulted aging population.
honestly i feel like another issue linked to this could be the working environment in japan as well..i have read that the environment there isnt family oriented and thus making it harder for couples to pursue starting a family without being affected career wise like recently i heard that there are even pregnancy timetables etc lols...maybe that could be one reason why the birth rate is low while the aging population gets higher and higher
Declining population size is good for the environment. Of course it will have negative economic impact, but the truth is the way we Humans live is not sustainable in the long run. If there were less of us, we could still have a wealthy lifestyle but live within the carrying capacity of Earth.
Thanks for making my argument for me. I didnt say anything about killing anyone. You did and OP implied it. The Earth has PLENTY of resources!! It is greedy human Gov't that oppresses free humans! I could go on but no sense in arguing with someone who is in favor of GENOCIDE in order to have a "wealthy lifestyle" as the OP you are defending has said! Good Day!
Declining population size is bad for areas that don't have overpopulation issues, so saying it's good for the environment is very one dimensional. I would encourage you to look into Hans Rosling and the overpopulation myth. He explains in very simple terms using research data on why and where overpopulation occurs and how it will change in the future.
I completely agree with the original post. The earth is already overpopulated and cannot sustain a larger population. If there was a steady decline in the global population over several decades (without killing people; just less births) it would improve the environment as well as the quality of life for people as unemployment would be less of an issue.
I’d end my life if I got so old I couldn’t look after myself and I’d want to die before any of my kids. I couldn’t imagine anything worse then outliving my kids (I don’t have kids yet).
I am also concerned about this issue. I have read studies that talk about civilizations that follow the current population trends of Japan. Their countries have fallen quite far or have become extinct.
Abhishek Kumar Bharti ASIANBOSS So maybe the single young people of India should move to Japan to find love and "mix blood" with the Japanese folk of their generation? {If you say that's a dumb idea, at least I'm thinking of ideas}. 🤔😔🔞♑🇯🇵👩🏫⛏⛑
young indians should move to japan! (and i didnt mean to make children, like earlier commenters here, but just to live and work there in the first place.)
Not a bad idea in my opinion, but many people are still racist, close-minded and don't want their culture or "blood" to be mixed with others. I personally think we're all from the same planet and as one planet we're also facing the problem of overpopulation. So I guess it would be at least better if seperate nations do *not* just think "we need more childs again" but think beyond their nation.
I'm so surprised at some of the young people's statements. No question, i've thought these statements in my head but I really never thought people would say them out in public like that. Rough times in japan?
Same problems, just a different country, personally I think it's a good thing (Canadian myself). What use is having more children if the intent is only to drag them into a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme? Eldest of 6; growing up my dad knew he'd never retire, though granted for him it was also a preference. As an adult in their mid 20s I know it only gets worse from here. The plight of working elderly is saddening- my family originally coming from Singapore I can really empathize- but this is a negative feedback loop that if nothing else at least puts a time limit on the rotten status quo. Having more kids when you can't afford them is a cruel thing to do (as someone whose parents did exactly that). Pensions, retirement? Everyone knows more is being taken out of the pot than goes in, seems that's the case almost everywhere with a few notable exceptions like Norway. And it's not like there isn't work, nor that there isn't the resources available to support people having families and careers and life stability- especially in a wealthy nation such as Japan, or the US- there's more than enough, but its allocation is beyond merely lopsided, it's completely misappropriated. In a large part population decline and a more evenly shaped demographic pyramid is an inevitable thing for societies that actually educate and invest in their citizens rather than pump them out to have short, miserable lives- but the extent of the decline many countries are facing is beyond that due to an unsustainable system of squeezing every iota of profit from the working and middle classes to begin with. Our futures are already being sold off, just like our present was sold off before we were born. No sense having a child in such an environment, bringing a human to this world to have a more miserable lot than your own. Society reaps what it sows, a society that creates prosperity for its people and gives them hope for the future will grow, and a society that doesn't will decline and eventually even immigrants will think twice, and critically about lands of "milk and honey and opportunity."
I live in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We have a few things in common with Japan. Unique cultures that are a blend of other cultures.. We love it with other people embrace our culture. An aging population. How's the economy in Japan?
Justin f h I just learned about Newfoundland about 6 months ago and am dying to visit! From what I’ve gleaned from travel guide books and the Internet, the area of St. John’s and the surrounding inlets & villages are beautiful. I’m also a big fan of Alan Doyle and his style of Newfoundland folk music. I work for an airline company so perhaps this summer or fall I can get up there. How’s the food & beer?
If the sun bursts apart at the end of the world, I don’t think I will give a damn As long as I’m surrounded by friends and pints in goddamned Newfoundland So here’s to Newfoundland - Protest the Hero
Why don't they stagger the work requirement? For instance, healthy seniors above 65 years old and below 72 years old are required to work but part-time only. This will provide the seniors with good activities to be healthy and in the same time, letting them enjoying their lives & benefit the society with less burden on pension costs.
It's all bcz of the dying family system and adoption of western culture , while if they stick to their Shinto traditional roots , I don't think the population must be aging
Being a Parent sucks! Most of the time, but they got to do something to maintain their technological anime Empire or all that hard work paid to fade away. More Children=An Eternal Empire
Just because the retirement age raises doesn't mean that you have to retire then. If you save up your money, you can retire approximately whenever you have enough money to. This is just when your social security (or Japan's equivalent) kicks in. :D
Every single year more and more countries raise retirement age... We're born into a system which forces us to work our entire lives and now more and more people won't even live long enough to finally catch a break. It's sad.
I get the feeling that Japan is crumbling under social and economic pressures. Low chilbirth rates, high debt, aging population, Hikikomori, depression, Vegetable Men, Pension age at 70 years. Hopefully they find something to revitalise their economy! It seems so sad.
I like so much while watching asian boss. Boss if it is possible can you make video of nepal or what nepalese people think about india. Hope thank you asian boss 감사합니다
Ban abortion and give financial incentives to have three kids or more. But it's very hard to do this in practice. Plus the country already has stagnated since the 90s.
Idunno...more parties...Put Viagra in Coke and Hamburgers, use Viagra powder instead of salt :)) Hey I'm trying to help here! ..or cut the light on narrow streets. Many ways, see!
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
While the aging population is an issue, I believe that the bigger issue is population declination. There aren't any incentives at all to have children in Japan whether it's maternal benefits, social services, etc. Also, I'd like to note that once this young generation becomes old, there will simply be no people to look after them. For a technologically advanced and one of the richest countries out there, it is surprising that Japan is one of the unhappiest nations out there. Maybe due to to the overwhelming overtime stress, society expectations, low wages. I think it mostly falls on the Japan government and more policies / incentives must be implemented to quickly rectify the issue.
Once again thank you Asian Boss for the quality content. You never fail to deliver. Very informative
J Y it’s not incentives. It’s the change in mentality that giving up everything isn’t worth a family(you have to do that when kids come around).
Devin Stambolziovski sorry but I disagree with you. Sure mentality is part of the issue, but is not a fundamental reasoning. I'm sure there are many people wanting to raise children of their own in Japan, but I think it has more to do with one person's financial situation. When people are being overworked for slave wages and are denied any social services, do you really think these people would have children even if they wanted to? Also, I have heard people have the risk of losing their jobs even if they take a short time off to be with family.
I am in Canada and the government is taking a very different approach to this matter. A mother can expect to get around 9 months of paid leave just to be with her new born child while being offered social services. In addition, one could expect a pay cheque every month to ease off the financial burden of families just to ensure that children are being well fed and have access to all basic needs.
Mentality is only a fraction of the problem and that's how I feel.
Declining population is good for the environment. The Earth is overpopulated and it's not sustainable in the long run, so I think it's great to see a declining trend in population sizes in many first world countries.
The economic issues are something to be vary of though.
Tyynymyy japan is very environmentally conscious. Why dont you tell it to those countries that produce the largest amount of chemicals and consume irresponsibly too much
J Y agree!
The woman in the yellow shirt had a lot to say, very insightful
And very qute and kind of shy?
she was going IN.
All over the world there are people who don’t think they are going to be old one day.
Very true, but they have time to come to that realization. Whats worse is old people whos only concern is that they are old now
CecilRyuTaekwondo *women don’t think they’ll ever be old men know this from young age women are in denial even when they’re 40+
Some people won’t.
Ok boomer
the loaded Glock inside my bedside desk: 🤓
Japan government policies focused on the elderly are due to low voter turnout of young japanese.
Why do you think this is so?
There is more elderly voters for politicans. Some younger people can't even vote yet. So its not benifical to politician's career to help young people.
이순호 As a young voter, even if we did vote, it would still be less than the elderly and the government wouldn't change so much.
I don't really remember the exact statistic but the majority of voters are over the age 60, so they obvious get polices pass that benefit them.
이순호 young voters are made by education. there's a problem in the education here
Aging is a major problem to Japan, but it seems to me that many of their senior citizens are still working. Japanese live very long life, and their having healthy diet is one of the reasons why they are still able to work even when they get really old.
their bodies may live longer, but their minds age the same as everywhere.
Mind is a body. If body has slower aging, than mind too.
Healthy Diet. They just eat less and have less sugary drinks. Do you know what the price of fruit is in Japan?
Dayla Hella expensive
Go Chiakiiiii💕
Who's with me?
千晃 the best!!!
ScienceDiscoverer for suseeeee!
Hiroko TV Me too
She is great! and you too xD
Yeah Chiaki did a really good job, hope to see her in more videos.
Great stuff. I loved the spectrum of opinions on this. More from elderly would've been good too, but as they say, it's hitting the youngest hardest.
That granny is so cute with that clip on her head and that bag.😘
Arya Stark (GILF)
Arya Stark
I bet she was cuter when she was younger!
She reminds me of that lady from Cooking With Dog. lol
vwgenera what are you even talking about???? Is this even related to my comment??
At first I thought that "Cooking with Dog" might have been an anime (that I'd never heard of). But no, it's apparently some kind of live-action cooking show on RUclips. But the "Rem" character is from an anime, and maybe that's all it took to set off vwgenera? The world is full of people who will clutch at any straw to talk about the things _they_ think are important, whether or not it's on topic.
When most of the policies are more beneficial towards elderly, younger generation can't help but to focus on their career first instead of planning to have a family in their 20-30s and i think that is one of the reason why they have this kind of problem.
I think making jobs more parent friendly might increase their birth rate. Lower the working hours keeping the salary same, having maternity and paternity benefits and good childcare facilities will make it attractive for salaried people to have more children. In some European countries, if you have three kids, government will pay half the money for buying a house. Some people might argue that encouraging women to work might reduce the number of children. But Japan is the country where women have to choose between children and job. And those who choose children can have only as many as one salary can afford. If they don't have to choose, the women who don't want to have children may start having them. And the financial independence means that if the marriage goes south, they can get out and still take care of the kids while on a job.
Lol the Japanese won't do any of that.
I see one big global issue: On the one hand we have the super rich industrial countries suffering from aging, mass immigration and a general unhealthy lifestyle (depression, social anxiety, burnout, stress etc.) and on the other the second and third world countries with mostly young people, suffering from poverty, pollution and crime...the rich get richer and the poor get poorer...and btw: replacing the young people by immigrants and robots sounds to me like a really strange kind of future (which won't be able to sustain any kind of cultural aspects in the long term anyway) sometimes I ask myself where this weird, confusing world situation should lead us to...
And thats not even accounting global warming and the environment
This has been true for a very long time... In industrialized countries, you're encouraged to have fewer children so that they have better lives... Children are moneysucks in the developed world. Also, developed countries have better access to abortion, birth control, etc...
Women in the first world have to feel economically stable to have children. That's why more children in the US are born into the working class or poverty than the middle class - the middle class is quite unstable in the US.
Anyway, every life comes with difficulties. In the first world, we have it pretty easy, though.
dude the poor is not getting poorer, you survive way longer nowadays and that's like the big thing *western culture* has brought on these nations. you no longer get wiped out by disease, and malaria rates are falling globally by 29% .
We are truly living through a time that is unprecedentedly safe and connected that individuals frankly are just along for the ride, but no-one is in control and anything can happen. Novelty will continue to be a property of development and chaos will turn into order, and order will turn into chaos - and so, the cycle continues...
Most likely, at one point in time humans will look back upon this time and think about the milestone-age in history where all became one - and technology created itself through the architecture of the universe, inevitably.
@FVR and @Anonymous Panacea the flaw of right wing anti immigrates stance in places like the US is that in itself it doesn't make sense.
The US is made of immigrates in the first place. So saying "replacing young people with immigrants is retarded" wouldn't make sense because the "young people" ancestors where immigrates that did that very thing.
So if the US did what your suggesting Anonymous Panacea the only Americans would be would be native Americans. So apparently it's not "retarded" it's how America was created, and devolved in the first place.
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@Anonymous Panaceathe second half of your post is pseudo science. In especially the last few sentence. there no corration with IQ and birth rates you literally just made that up. And your statement making more is false, the more developed the nation less children, in a lot of cases with more women enter the work force the further delayed parent hood. It some countries especially Japan there over worked culture with too little personal time. In The US people find more opportunities to do both. But young people in Japan become way more focus on furthering their career then family and etc. In general the collective culture of Japan cooperate culture is nothing like US and Europe.
The less growth is economically bad, Japan in general have a young labor shortage. The issue what they are highlighting in the video as the population become older the elderly would have to work longer instead of retire. And not only that when they do retire the tax base "young workers" would decrease. It create a issue their not enough younger people to even take care of the older.
Ironically the US doesn't have this problem because of immigration. The US has a steady growth rate. immigrates become Americans and this cycle repeats as it always has.
FVR Immigrants and Robots, sounds like the the plot to Elysium.
Less working hours=more babies
Obnoxious, but Consistent They don't want babies! This is what young people think
You can't put all young people in the same basket, some ofthem think that way, but not all...
Drakoraz yes I know but Increasing You cannot ignore this
It's not that they don't want babies, it''s that they already struggle to survive themselves, so adding another mouth to feed in their family it's having a harder life and for some people, they can't afford it.
Drakoraz It is possible a little as a Japanese I dont agree so We are not interested in it recently
I heard about the aging population in japan before but I'm surprised by the state of the relationship between the young and the elderly, that seems to be an even bigger problem.
I'm moving to Indonesia for work in August. I would love to see videos from Indonesia on your channel.
Great video by the way, like always.
Imigration: Exists
The Japanese (and most east Asia countries): wtf is this?
even if it opens as a country, it is then up to the states i guess. If everyone wants to move to big cities only like tokyo, thats just increasing human traffic to another level
Then it won't really be Japan anymore will it? Japan isn't a modern made up nation of immigrants like Canada or the US. It has thousands of years of history and a distinct culture and identity.
@@nutyyyy Not necessarily. Many children of immigrants into European countries certainly identify with their new home and have almost completely embraced the culture. The question is how easily can you make the immigrants embrace the local culture? Can you make the local populace accepting of these new immigrants and not treat them as "other"? Both sides need to be willing. Assimilation is a two way street. People wont assimilate if the people they're trying to assimilate into tells them: "No you cant be one of us, even if you were born here. Because you look funny".
I noticed mostly young people were interviewed.
Most of the young interviewed mentioned there is generational conflict between the young and the old. The young interviewees perceived more policies favor the elderly. A conflict between generations will not help in solving the aging population phenomenon in Japan.
It’s not just needing to have more children, I think these interviews missed an opportunity to talk about immigration as a solution to the problem. Not many young people in Japan but there’s tons in the developing world - basically what USA does to fill gaps in its society. But xenophobic attitudes and cultural preservation may be even harder to overcome than the economic and cultural issues belying the low birth rate...
wouldn't the problem with immigration be that these people need to know Japanese in order to be useful? I think Japan has really opened up to immigration for people with good Japanese knowledge and a useful skill set.
A people ought to have a right to seek the preservation of their culture. Neither Japan, nor any other nation, has an obligation to welcome anyone from any other country at any time. They need to have more children.
@@timbogan7244 sure they have the right to try but if they fail, which they are, then they probably want to avert economic catastrophe
Asia's 'developing world' is Indonesia... and China, Korea and Japan are, rightfully so, terrified of islam. It has already invaded Europe and its culture, and destroyed it so. Other developed countries are worried.
Maybe Japan doesn't want to end up like the UK and France because of islam and this forced idea of incluisivity.
Even if they allow immigration it wouldn't work. It's neighbouring countries like Russia & china are also facing population crisis.
The host of this video is very well articulated, I believe it’s the first time I’ve seen her on your channel. 👌🏻👍🏻👍🏻
6:36 certainty not "Population Boom" but a stable increase in population.
This is worrisome. With many more seniors, it will be much harder for the young to sustain everyone, especially if they have to work for seniors who are at the point of being unable to work for themselves. I hope they find a solution soon, if there aren't any in mind yet. I may not be Japanese, but I respect them for their technological advancements, intelligence, determination and discipline.
Awesome video,loved it, please ask more questions like this. Also the classic everybody gets asked a question, nobody raises their hand to share their thoughts and looks around hoping someone else will do it, story of my life
my mother retired when she was 65, she stayed healthy until she was 83. from then on my brother and i took care of her for 8 years, taking her to doctors Appointment .getting her medications, and spending evenings watching DVDS perhaps younger people in japan should prepare themselves for these events, we kept mom in her home where she wanted to be,
This is a problem in the US too. The 65-75 year old population is called the baby boomer population named after the boom in child birth after the soldiers came back to the US after WWII. Between the large jump in that age group and modern medicine making everyone live longer it has been discussed many times that the retirement age should be increased or government pension funds (Social security) will run out. This NEEDS to be done or younger generations will not have a fund at all. We are MUCH more capable to work in older years than we were 100 years ago. It shouldn't be a problem but that age group is fighting it very hard, quite selfish of them.
Not only that the Libs/Dems have spent the SS money already!
The Libs/Dems? The GOP has been in control for 3/5 terms since Clinton (when the majority of the debt was piled up) so kinda hard to use that argument. It's actually much easier to say that the GOP and their multi-TRILLION dollar wars that DESTABILIZED the middle east are are huge cause. Oh and the GOP crashing the US/World economy helped that debt too.
What funny is the debt really isn't THAT big of an issues. As long as it remains somewhat close to our GDP is all that matters. It should always be looked at as a percentage of GDP (which is basically always rising). When getting a mortgage for a house you analyze your debt:income ratio. The same analysis should be done for national debt:GDP. If you look at that we're basically in line with where the majority of the developed world is. If we stopped wasting money on useless wars we would be in much better shape than the rest of the developed world (with a few exceptions).
increasing the pensionable age isnt a tenable solution. SS is paid for through our taxes which would be enough if not for the lack of gainful employment in our current generation. so many people under the age of 30 barely make enough to live on their own. Much less be taxed for SS
No extending it is tenable. I just did. How do you expect a system that was set up to support seniors for 20 years to suddenly support them for 30 years? You can't so you need to extend the retirement age to account for longer lifespans.
The baby boomer generation just so happens to be a large bulge in the population. If they can't get gainful employment and SS folds its the fault of the baby boomers as they are the employers right now.
I'm 29 and make $85k a year. College debt slowed me down a lot but I'm on my own feet now and will do my best to be ready for retirement WITHOUT any social security. If it happens to be there when I retire I'll be double covered!
well i shouldnt have to point this out but just because youre in a good situation doesnt mean that's how it is for everyone or even a majority. The average individual income is less than half of what you are supposedly making so count yourself lucky and dont be blinded to how things are for a majority of the population.
Lets say they did that and the retirement age was increased by 10 years. Thats a pretty substantial amount of jobs that are no longer open for younger people to fill. How is it that your plan works for those people just coming into the workforce? If that was truly a tenable solution then you have to also account for those trying to start a career as well.
I think all of Japan's socio-economic problems are all related to each other. The increasing aging population, population decline and crazy work hours are all connected. While the youth interviewed were pretty harsh in their words, they have a point; all the focus has been on the old geezers who don't understand the sentiments of the youth today. At least the old lady who was interviewed was concerned about the pension of the young people who are supporting the current old population's pension.
There needs to be a radical change in the Japanese mindset which probably won't happen due to their "shogannai" mentality.
That tall guy in the white shirt is savage...I love it.
I find it disturbing how the Japanese government seems so callous with their policies.
really interesting topic and video, thank you.
Feels good to be early YOSHA
I loved the different perspectives that came out
I believe raising the pensionable age to 70 is not the solution. Incentive to have family like: 80% or higher paid manadatory maternity and paternity leave for no less than 6 months, mandatory limit on extra work hours in office etc would help. Also the should open up more to foreign investement and workers.I love Japan and sad about this ... policy makers need to implement a work al personal time life cultural change making things less havy both for the youth and the elderly.
thank you for your insighful reply. You are right. There is a need for generational shift in power. And the youth have to demand it otherwise no one will give up power on their own and there will not be cultural change. Shortage of workers and professioanals will be heavy to bare on the youth so they should take the time and protest systematically. It is not about disrispecting the elders its about taking control of one's own life isnt it? It's a natural social transition that power shuld pass from the elders to the younger generation .
A major shift in thinking on a nationwide scale would definitely start a change towards new and effecient policies. However, I've noticed recently that Japanese people have a strong aversion/hostility towards change.
you should have asked if theyd be open to more foreigners living in japan to help the population
You should judge a society in how they treat their elderly.
This is a problem in the UK too. retirement age by the time I get to 65 will by then be 70. I'd love to be in a position of comfort where money was no issue, but in the field im in ... not so sure. Not a lot of us are procreating, and though this is absolutely the wrong reason to do it, getting married is still set up to receive more advantages than those who remain single. Yet a lot of us are single and living online.
It does strike me as odd that the youth in Japan are the least vocal of prior generations though? They, like other millennials and Gen Z have the world at their fingertips - they have so much to be outraged by and we're at a crossroads of change the world over. How come they're so passive?
Alex I think it's to do with the culture as well, it encourages a more passive and polite attitude, which is nice but I wish the young people of Japan would speak up more! They deserve better but only they can change the future
Its a problem in all developed countries truth be told
While not as severe, it's a problem in the U.S. as well. Our problem is at least slowed by immigration. I am not saying Japan needs to necessarily open it's boarders up to just anyone, but maybe adopting a system much like ours here could help them. Of course, there would be bumps in the road should Japan start letting in large amounts of foreigners, but policies geared towards assimilation for those who decide to stay perminently should be heavily encouraged. Of course, I am of the opinion that if you move to another country, you should do your best to adopt the behavior if the locals and learn their language. But, to be fair, there is no easy solution for a problem this large
It's not really that much of a problem in the US
starfox300 Thank you. I work with men and women who are past retirement age. And they all produce more than I do. Everyone works until they tire of working. No one is complaining about it in the U.S. No one.
starfox300 The birthrate in the US has been falling on an annual basis; it is becoming a problem in the eyes of some. I personally don't view a steady decline in the population (globally) because the Earth can't sustain more people.
There is an inbalance between the old and young in the U.S. I have worked with older adults as well, and most don't want to keep working. They simply can't afford to retire. Social Security is not enough to live on. Services for the elderly is also severely strained. It will only get worse over the years, just a bit more slowly than countries like Japan. I have seen several news articles about this being a problem, especially over the last three or four years. One can easily pull up information and statistics on Google. Just because you haven't heard anyone around you complain does not mean the absence of a problem
Of course birthrates have been falling you don't have to have 5-10 kids anymore. People seem to forget most children wouldn't live to be adults so birth rates where high. Our population is still growing just fine. Farmers used to put there kids to work. Its the whole reason summer vacation is a thing. If you look at third world countries people still have 5+ kids and most of them don't make it. We have modern tech sterilization and medicine so we to have to perform the genetic shotgun of having swarms of kids.
Im not japanese but ive learned a lot about this aging population issue since it became international news a couple years ago. I think its partially because of the culture but mainly its an economic issue. I think an effective but likely unpopular solution to the issue would be to have a forced retirement age (lets just say 65 to keep it at what it is) and to lower the overtime threshold to 45 hours while having a hard limit to the amount of hours you can work in a week (65).
How I would make it work is the govt would give a standard pension to senior citizens which would be paid for by the taxes of non-seniors. Every 15 years past the age of 20, your taxes for that system would decrease up until your retirement. In addition, families with children dependents would get an additional tax write off per child. This would allow room for the promotion of non-seniors in addition to opening up gainful employment for young people unable to find work. Lowering overtime and limiting over all time would force companies to hire more people further increasing employment. With younger people now able to work and to be promoted to higher paying positions, i dont think there will be so much of an aversion to starting a family and having kids because it would be more affordable.
just an idea i had rolling arounding my head. not that it would happen but if i could i would make it that way
AvatarRoku I think this plan could work. Another rising problem is the younger population couldn't keep up yet with the old people population. Which means they have to work their ass off to meet the needs of old generation, since the younger population < older population. Another thing that could work is, setting up more of new work opportunities and investment. E.g. through entertainment industry and commodities like SK did, through tourism like singapore, etc. Then the tax goes to the child support programs. That way the young people could also afford family and contribute to growing population while paying the 15-20 years taxes for older people.
Nice to see a new reporter, great work Chiaki-san.
I think that this serious problem that Japan is facing must be taken serious among all Japanese people, old and young. The government also most realize all the problems and issues that people face when having and raising children in Japan, it is not cheap at all. I have spoken to several of my Japanese friends and heard what they have to say about this and everyone tells me about the difficulties and how expensive it is to raise a child in Japan. So I think this is a big factor for many young people today. The balance between work and private life must be addressed as well, because most of my friends in Japan is just working to much, so they have no interest or time for having a family.
I am always curious why do korean people file a report to the bleu house every time there is something. Why are they obsessed with reporting and sueing everything? Maybe a video about something like that? :)
I never heard of this. I would like more info on this, but the country is strict with laws. Therefore resulting in low crime.
This would be an interesting topic for sure! Koreans have been going overboard on their Blue House petitions and using it for non-issues.
Lila Hiell This is a pro-korean chanel so they won't likely to have a topic like that.
lonely spirit i get that it's pro korean but they still can ask 😁i mean they asked similar questions before like in the video about a movie and the bad subtitle work on it. Then the people signed petitions too.
Wow I dont even know what the blue house is, so a video on that would be cool!
People who are not people in the country that can afford to worry about Japan. Let's worry about your country before worrying about the country with the world economic third place and a population of 120 million.
Great video!
We italians understand very well the situation of Japan because our country is the country with the second eldest population in the world (the first is Japan): here we are trying to solve the problem using regular immigrants but a lot of people don't want all these foreigners in our land, therefore the government is promoting policies in favor of the birth rate but for now we have not results and the retirement age is increasing. The difference with Japan is that the italian people are against this solution, also because the young people often can't find work.
meanwhile in indonesia , we strulling againts birthrate , birthrate in indonesia to high
I would advise you to read/ watch Hans Rosling and overpopulation. He explains using research data, in simple terms why some countries have high birthrate and how it will change in the future.
thall your racist, disgusting way of thinking is dangerous
telling the truth is racist, got it. there are good muslims of course, but a too big amount of those who are in europe aren't. and the vast majority who go there are men, which is another problem.
thall what you have said in your previous comment isn't "the truth" since you are stating that a religion of approx 1 billion followers is dangerous. "The too big amount" that you are claiming consists less than 2-3% of the Muslim population in Europe. This percentage exists because of some kind of misunderstanding of the religioun, not because it is dangerous.
I think you should research more information about this, because indonesia have fertility rate of 2,4.
Hey Asian Boss, could you do an updated video on this soon, I’d like to see more on this topic !
Is there a legal obligation to retire at 65 (under the current law)/70 (under the incoming law)? If you decide you want to continue working beyond that age, then could you?
To me it seems wrong to raise the retirement age so drastically, I would have thought that raising it by one year every two to three years and easing in this new piece of legislation would have been better.
they might actually introduce the gradual change, with 70 being the goal. that's how most european countries do at least.
I think you should retire whenever you like if you can afford to do so, and if you cannot then you should retire when you cannot work or are of an age where you should be allowed to enjoy your final years. If you are sick or not going to live a long life as others why should you retire so old? I also think you should have to give a portion of your wealth away in trade for support. It is unfair that people hoard wealth and belonging so young people cannot have a house and such things then they want others to look after them with taxes. (But only if you are of a certain amount of wealth you should have to do this).
Japan's fertility rate is actually much higher than other developed Asian countries. While Japan's TFR is around 1.45, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea all have fertility rates around 1.00 and lower (and they are declining, whereas Japan's fertility rate has been increasing since a low of 1.26 in 2005). Large regions of China (containing 100s of million of people) also have TFRs under 1.00 (Beijing's TFR in 2010 was around 0.71, per Chinese sources + The Economist). I wonder why you guys never interview those countries about this topic?
Because this vid is not about TFR, it's about *aging population* which Japan has the biggest problem of any countries.
I will go to japan and help them populate. not much of a risk in genetic change since I'm asian 😎
In a lot of countries, the aging population is strictly due to the terrible economy we have today. I have heard stories from my grandparents how they were able to afford a house while one was a university student and the other was working an entry level low wage job. Now it's extraordinarily hard to survive in comparison, it makes sense that people who can barely take care of themselves make a decision not to have kids. They just can't afford having kids.
The best solution in my opinion is to provide benefits for those who have children which will reduce the economic burden of having a child. On a larger scale, I think most countries need to invest more in housing because as it is right now, in a lot of areas it's almost impossible to find a place to live. Housing is so expensive because the demand is much higher than the supply.
I have a lot of friends who have to live in a completely different city and commute to their university because there aren't any apartments up for rent in the city they study in. Not to mention the massive debt incurred from getting a university degree...
It's obvious that with low fertility rates the state pension system must end, and seniors who are no longer able to provide for themselves must either be taken care of by their own descendants, live off their accrued wealth, or die - slowly in poverty or by euthanasia. You just can't expect a small minority of productive people to be slaves to the entitled. The system was designed around the expectation of perpetual growth.
Being such a wealthy country the government really should invest in encouraging its citizens to have more children. Giving working mothers paid time off, monthly financial aid for every child, making childcare cheaper, etc. That's the solution. Here in the Netherlands the government chooses to fight the aging population by letting thousands of immigrants in whose values and culture are so different, that they destroy Dutch culture and cause many conflicts. I hope Japan doesn't ever make that mistake
di malaysia umur persaraan 60 tahun pun ramai yang tidak setuju kerana kadar pengangguran yang agak tinggi sekarang.
70 at work be like " How many grandchild do I have,again? "
I don't think it's more of an aging issue. I feel like the elderly haven't increased but rather a decrease in young people. Alot of young people (melanials) have decided to not have children
This issue isn't just unique to Japan, although it's most prevalent there. A lot of developed nations have been seeing this trend for a while, including the US, which recently saw the lowest birth rates in 30 years. There's too many barriers to having children - poor maternity leave, social services, etc. Lots of people struggle just to get by, find stable employment, pay rent, and such.
I do believe that at some point we have to stabilize human population, considering it's been exponentially increasing for more than half a century. Estimated carrying capacity is 10 billion.
That's because women in the US love to abort.
65 years old and still working?!!
I plan to retire at 30, dude~
no money to living everything is expensive
The only solution to declining Japanese economy will be elderly to work. And immigration.
I admire Japanese for having a long life!!
Pretty sure that their government is vexed up with that tho.
久しぶりに日本についての動画で良いトピックが取り上げられたね。ちあきさんが日本のレポーターの中で一番見やすい。しかし、肝心の65歳以上の方にインタビューしなかったのが残念だった(してたら年齢を聞いて欲しい)。個人的には人口減少の対策として、移民受け入れに賛成か反対か、反対なら人口を増加させるためにどうするべきかも聞いて欲しかった。全体的に抽象的かな。
この人たちやってること結構適当だよ。真っ当に見えてちゃんとした資料とか読まずにインタビューしてるし、質問してる側にも知識がない。
世界中の人が見てるってことに大した自覚もないんだよ。
中国が運営してるんだろうね
Sighma a.k.a. emma Z 同感です。アマチュアですからね。韓国の方が運営してるとお聞きしました。
sasuke ishikawa それはほんとに思う。日本の悪い部分を扱って世界に晒し上げてる。ほんと胸糞が悪い。
良かったのはローガンポールについての動画だけや
i get that white shirt guy. Many white collar industries are still practicing hierarchy and these old farts are always getting in the way for younger capable people to promote, mostly only when these guys retire. Raising retirement age might in fact drive away the younger generation to find opportunities outside japan.
In countries like China, India, and Japan, a declining birth rate is a good thing. While China's one child policy (now two child policy) is inconsistent with individual freedom in the US, I think it's a good solution for them. Less people means more space, less traffic, more resources, and a host of other wonderful things. Yes, it's tough for a couple generations as the population ages, but you just need to bear with it.
The young need to realize that whatever solution they come up with will likewise apply to them in their old age. If they don't want marriage or family, they too will depend on the kindness of strangers to take care of them when they are also old and feeble. The next generation after them will be very aware of the examples today's young people provide in dealing with this issue, so today's youth are creating their own "karma" in that sense for how they will be treated in the future.
Letting the elderly work as long as they are still physically healthy is fine. But the problem is, it will significantly prevent young people from finding jobs and it therefore results in young people not being able to get married and have kids.
That one guy sounded like he wanted to kick the old peeps to the curb. What some of those interviewed fail to grasp is that all the gov't policies established now will be things they'll have to live with when they're old, like making 70 the retirement age. Learn from the past, i.e. old folks, to plan for the future.
yeah, the japanese react to that in every minute :D
Very eloquent young lady there in the yellow shirt.
Thank you to the interviewer. I know it must be very hard ro get people to interview
I am almost 70 and stopped working only one year ago. This is quite late for European standards. I am very happy to be able to enjoy my retirement. My pension is small but fortunately I have savings. I am not relying on children as I have none. I admire the Japanese elderly resilience and health. As for the younger generation, they seem to resent the elderly. So something is out of balance…
Hey What Happen to the 2 OG Asian Boss? Well Anyways Love the Topic....I hope you can do a What Do Chinese think of Filipinos
Wag mo na tanungin Asian Boss. Alipin tingin ng mga intsik sa Pilipino.
Chinese controls philippine economy
East Asian Boss
The problem of the aging society is deeply intertwined with population decline, labor force shortages, and stagnated economic growth. While the Japanese are not so eager to look to foreigners as a new source of labor, the government should start by stabilizing its own domestic workforce. There is an unsustainable number of precarious workers (e.g. freeters) at the moment. My personal opinion is that, if Japan cannot solve the population shortage, then they should not rely on population growth as a driver of economic growth. Instead, they should continue to develop their AI and automation technology.
Well, when 6 out of 10 people around them are above 70, they still seem to hesitate to answer if they notice Japan is an aging country….. OMG ! The depopulation is such a thing in east Asia, Korea Japanese and Chinese……
Kudos for the impressive job, Chiaki !
It's very informative & interesting, however, it would have been better if it was a two part episode in order to look at both sides of the matter: the first part would have the reactions of the concerned elderly workers and the second part would have the reactions of the affected young workers. Like what Asian Boss did with some South Korea - North Korea videos.
Many people from other countries, have always perceived the Japanese people to have such strong sense of nationalism & patriotism that is why this topic seems rather out of character in that it appears that the young Japanese workers tend to put their personal interests over the national interest.
5:57 LOL? if young ppl get abusive taxes, the declination will be higher when they elder, so the next young people will get more frustration with higher taxes and then it will go and go and go
Honestly solving the population crisis should be as simple as ensuring social safety net for everyone. The majority of youth want to have spouses, have their own houses and have their own kids. That's not happening when everything is expensive as hell, employers expect maximum work for minimum pay and no tolerance or accommodations for people with disabilities or neurodivergences that would allow them to participate in the workforce.
As always, the blame for aging population with low birth rate is the government's weak policies. Japan is not the only place suffering from this.
The problem is probly related to ;
When Low birth declining Started
Women joining work market
Marriage Starts to fall
Divorce Increase rate
Herbivore Men
Also maybe the usual;
Qualities men look for in a women
Qualities women look for in a men
I dont know there but here what i most see women search is the money stability.
I find the answers by these non elderly's disturbing... sooooo damn disturbing....
i think too. it's a shame
care to explain why?
Chung Horkit that one guy was a bit too much but other than him I think they were reasonable
Sometimes the truth hurts, this generation is going to suffer a lot due to the current older generations.
Understandable though because those in power won't feel the adverse effects the youth today will suffer. One guy was flat out rude about the elderly (the middle aged guy in the white) but the others had valid concerns.
That sweet, shy-looking girl in yellow was throwing down some blunt, hard truth! Was not expecting that!
Aging population is an unavoidable phenomenon not only in Japan but also in other industrial nations. As countermeasures against the decline of workforce, acceptance of immigrants is the most effective way as European countries are doing, but Japanese people stubbornly refuse to accept immigrants from overseas. So, in order to make both ends meet, the Japanese government has to raise the retirement age and reduce the amount of a pension payment. Each Japanese has to acquire skills for survival and healthy body to work for a longer time.
Really big isssue in Japan !
The source of the problem is because of declining birth rate. But I understand japanese people feeling. There's a lot of reasons why they don't want to have a child. Some of the reasons is the long working hour, expensive price, etc. I have watched an interview of japanese couple,they are married but decide not to have a child. They said the reason is because both of them get home from work around 10 pm so there's no way they could care for a children. I think japanese work culture have to change, office workers in japan are expected to work overtime everyday. The couldn't care for their family if they work overtime everyday. I even have a japanese acquaintance that say that he is married with his work. While we that live in other country "work so we could live" japanese are " live to work". Not only that the live expenses also getting more expensive, they can't afford to have a child. And with this new regulation that increase the pension age it will be even tougher. The young people can't get promoted, job vacancy that could be filled with young workers is not available because the company still maintain their old workers. How could young people make a child while they couldn't get a job or couldn't get promoted? If they couldn't get a job or get promoted they couldn't make money to raise children. This things resulted in declining of birth rate after that of course resulted aging population.
honestly i feel like another issue linked to this could be the working environment in japan as well..i have read that the environment there isnt family oriented and thus making it harder for couples to pursue starting a family without being affected career wise like recently i heard that there are even pregnancy timetables etc lols...maybe that could be one reason why the birth rate is low while the aging population gets higher and higher
Declining population size is good for the environment. Of course it will have negative economic impact, but the truth is the way we Humans live is not sustainable in the long run. If there were less of us, we could still have a wealthy lifestyle but live within the carrying capacity of Earth.
Why dont YOU leave the Earth? What you said is absurd.
Thanks for making my argument for me. I didnt say anything about killing anyone. You did and OP implied it. The Earth has PLENTY of resources!! It is greedy human Gov't that oppresses free humans! I could go on but no sense in arguing with someone who is in favor of GENOCIDE in order to have a "wealthy lifestyle" as the OP you are defending has said! Good Day!
Declining population size is bad for areas that don't have overpopulation issues, so saying it's good for the environment is very one dimensional. I would encourage you to look into Hans Rosling and the overpopulation myth. He explains in very simple terms using research data on why and where overpopulation occurs and how it will change in the future.
I completely agree with the original post. The earth is already overpopulated and cannot sustain a larger population. If there was a steady decline in the global population over several decades (without killing people; just less births) it would improve the environment as well as the quality of life for people as unemployment would be less of an issue.
I fully agree. We should adopt rather than making a biological one. Adoption is not only ethical but also not harmful to the environment.
I’d end my life if I got so old I couldn’t look after myself and I’d want to die before any of my kids. I couldn’t imagine anything worse then outliving my kids (I don’t have kids yet).
Same!
I am also concerned about this issue. I have read studies that talk about civilizations that follow the current population trends of Japan. Their countries have fallen quite far or have become extinct.
Like which one? I have yet to witness reading one single country's extinction due to old age. It is not a real thing.
India has the world's largest youth population. Govt. Should make equal policies for both groups.
Abhishek Kumar Bharti ASIANBOSS So maybe the single young people of India should move to Japan to find love and "mix blood" with the Japanese folk of their generation? {If you say that's a dumb idea, at least I'm thinking of ideas}. 🤔😔🔞♑🇯🇵👩🏫⛏⛑
Not sure if the people will agree though. I think Japanese people would only want pure breed children.
young indians should move to japan! (and i didnt mean to make children, like earlier commenters here, but just to live and work there in the first place.)
Not a bad idea in my opinion, but many people are still racist, close-minded and don't want their culture or "blood" to be mixed with others. I personally think we're all from the same planet and as one planet we're also facing the problem of overpopulation. So I guess it would be at least better if seperate nations do *not* just think "we need more childs again" but think beyond their nation.
dekar, totally agreeing. this is one planet and so many problems would be solved if not every country was stuck in its own bubble.
I'm so surprised at some of the young people's statements. No question, i've thought these statements in my head but I really never thought people would say them out in public like that. Rough times in japan?
2:26 Fired.
Same problems, just a different country, personally I think it's a good thing (Canadian myself). What use is having more children if the intent is only to drag them into a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme? Eldest of 6; growing up my dad knew he'd never retire, though granted for him it was also a preference. As an adult in their mid 20s I know it only gets worse from here. The plight of working elderly is saddening- my family originally coming from Singapore I can really empathize- but this is a negative feedback loop that if nothing else at least puts a time limit on the rotten status quo. Having more kids when you can't afford them is a cruel thing to do (as someone whose parents did exactly that).
Pensions, retirement? Everyone knows more is being taken out of the pot than goes in, seems that's the case almost everywhere with a few notable exceptions like Norway. And it's not like there isn't work, nor that there isn't the resources available to support people having families and careers and life stability- especially in a wealthy nation such as Japan, or the US- there's more than enough, but its allocation is beyond merely lopsided, it's completely misappropriated. In a large part population decline and a more evenly shaped demographic pyramid is an inevitable thing for societies that actually educate and invest in their citizens rather than pump them out to have short, miserable lives- but the extent of the decline many countries are facing is beyond that due to an unsustainable system of squeezing every iota of profit from the working and middle classes to begin with.
Our futures are already being sold off, just like our present was sold off before we were born. No sense having a child in such an environment, bringing a human to this world to have a more miserable lot than your own. Society reaps what it sows, a society that creates prosperity for its people and gives them hope for the future will grow, and a society that doesn't will decline and eventually even immigrants will think twice, and critically about lands of "milk and honey and opportunity."
I live in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We have a few things in common with Japan.
Unique cultures that are a blend of other cultures..
We love it with other people embrace our culture.
An aging population.
How's the economy in Japan?
Justin f h I just learned about Newfoundland about 6 months ago and am dying to visit! From what I’ve gleaned from travel guide books and the Internet, the area of St. John’s and the surrounding inlets & villages are beautiful. I’m also a big fan of Alan Doyle and his style of Newfoundland folk music. I work for an airline company so perhaps this summer or fall I can get up there. How’s the food & beer?
Maritimes are aging.
Newfoundland is great! My mom was born there, but sadly got adopted to the states 😭 Still visit family there tho and I luv it 😁
Newfoundland is one of the most intresting places in Canada. Good luck to your land. 😄
If the sun bursts apart at the end of the world, I don’t think I will give a damn
As long as I’m surrounded by friends and pints in goddamned Newfoundland
So here’s to Newfoundland
- Protest the Hero
Why don't they stagger the work requirement? For instance, healthy seniors above 65 years old and below 72 years old are required to work but part-time only. This will provide the seniors with good activities to be healthy and in the same time, letting them enjoying their lives & benefit the society with less burden on pension costs.
Smart and aware Japanese citizens
It's all bcz of the dying family system and adoption of western culture , while if they stick to their Shinto traditional roots , I don't think the population must be aging
What they need is some good ol gangsta rap music to make its way to Tokyo. Maybe, young people will start having a voice after that.
Being a Parent sucks! Most of the time, but they got to do something to maintain their technological anime Empire or all that hard work paid to fade away.
More Children=An Eternal Empire
I think that at some point the prospect of interracial marriages are going to see a significant increase if things continue this way
Just because the retirement age raises doesn't mean that you have to retire then. If you save up your money, you can retire approximately whenever you have enough money to. This is just when your social security (or Japan's equivalent) kicks in. :D
As there are many people from different countries willing to go to Japan for work, I think Japanese needs to be more open and kind to foreign workers.
Every single year more and more countries raise retirement age... We're born into a system which forces us to work our entire lives and now more and more people won't even live long enough to finally catch a break. It's sad.
Working on this wish me good luck👑👑🇸🇦🇸🇦
They’re going to end up doing what they had to do a while ago, the irony of life.
This is very interesting, I wonder what other places in the world are in a similar situation to Japan
Commander Peridot it's every developed countries
I get the feeling that Japan is crumbling under social and economic pressures. Low chilbirth rates, high debt, aging population, Hikikomori, depression, Vegetable Men, Pension age at 70 years. Hopefully they find something to revitalise their economy! It seems so sad.
I like so much while watching asian boss. Boss if it is possible can you make video of nepal or what nepalese people think about india. Hope thank you asian boss 감사합니다
How can Japan gradually and drastically improve its birth rate?
Ban abortion and give financial incentives to have three kids or more. But it's very hard to do this in practice. Plus the country already has stagnated since the 90s.
Idunno...more parties...Put Viagra in Coke and Hamburgers, use Viagra powder instead of salt :)) Hey I'm trying to help here! ..or cut the light on narrow streets. Many ways, see!